France’s postal service was knocked down after a suspected cyberattack, with frustrated clients lining up to deliver Christmas parcels.
France’s national postal service and its banking arm were knocked off by a suspected cyberattack on Monday, snarling parcel deliveries and online payments during the Christmas rush. La Poste handled approximately 2.6 billion packages last year and employs over 200,000 people.
“A major network incident is currently disrupting all of our information systems,” wrote the company on its Facebook page. At the time of writing, the website was still unreachable.
The postal operator stated that its online services, including La Banque Postale online and mobile app, laposte.fr, Digiposte, Identité Numérique La Poste, and the La Poste app, were temporarily unavailable.
La Poste has informed that service may be temporarily disrupted in some post offices. However, it is still possible to carry out banking and postal transactions at the counter.
“Our teams are working hard to restore the situation as quickly as possible and ensure a return to normal as soon as possible,” stated the company.
According to reports, the disruption was caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. La Poste said the attack temporarily affected online services. The company stressed that customer data was not compromised. The incident did, however, impact the delivery of mail and parcels.
Banking services strained, but core functions intact
The disruption extended to La Banque Postale, a public bank and subsidiary of Groupe La Poste, which confirmed that its online and mobile banking platforms were unavailable. The bank said, however, that essential financial operations continued to function normally.“
The bank's essential services are not impacted. Payments, interbank transfers, and the processing of flows are functioning normally,” the bank posted on X.
“Cash withdrawals from ATMs, in-store card payments, as well as transfers via WERO remain accessible."
No threat actor immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on La Postale.
Ministry attacked as an act of revenge
The current news comes in the wake of another major breach affecting the French Ministry of the Interior.
A week ago, the Ministry confirmed claims on the cybercrime forum about an attack. The group behind the alleged hack explained that the attack is a form of revenge for authorities arresting members of the “ShinnyHunters/hollow” cybergang.
Since the incident, French authorities have arrested a 22-year-old hacker, allegedly linked to the cyberattack.
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